Seasons of Gracehttp://seasonsofgrace.net
Reflections on Faith, Family, and the Future of AmericaMon, 08 May 2017 21:12:15 +0000enhourly1http://seasonsofgrace.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cropped-Site-Icon-32x32.jpgSeasons of Gracehttp://seasonsofgrace.net
3232So That All May Believe: The “Miracle of the Sun”http://seasonsofgrace.net/so-that-all-may-believe-the-miracle-of-the-sun-2/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/so-that-all-may-believe-the-miracle-of-the-sun-2/#commentsMon, 08 May 2017 21:12:15 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3469It was raining at the Cova da Iria on October 13, 1917–raining so much, in fact, that the crowds gathered there, their clothing drenched and dripping, slipped in the puddles and along the trails of mud. Those who had umbrellas opened them against the downpour, but they were still splashed and sodden. All waited, their eyes on three peasant children who had promised a miracle.

And then, at high noon, something remarkable happened: The clouds broke, and the sun appeared in the sky. Unlike any other day, the sun began to revolve in the sky–an opaque, spinning disc. It cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. Without warning, the sun began to careen across the sky, zigging and zagging toward the earth. Three times it approached, then receded. The panicked crowd erupted in screams; but there was no evading it. The end of the earth, some believed, was at hand.

The event lasted ten minutes, and then the sun, just as mysteriously, stopped and receded back toward its place in the heavens. The frightened witnesses murmured as they looked about. The rainwater had evaporated and their clothing, which had been soaked through to their skin, was now completely dry. So, too, was the ground: As if transformed by a sorcerer’s wand, the pathways and trails of mud were as dry as on a hot summer day.

According to Fr. John De Marchi, an Italian Catholic priest and researcher who spent seven years in Fatima, 110 miles north of Lisbon, studying the phenomenon and interviewing witnesses,

“Engineers that have studied the case reckoned that an incredible amount of energy would have been necessary to dry up those pools of water that had formed on the field in a few minutes as it was reported by witnesses.”

* * * * *

IT SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE FICTION, or lore from the pen of Edgar Allan Poe. And the event may well have been written off as an illusion, but for the extensive news coverage it received at the time.

Gathered in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, an insignificant rural community in the countryside in Ourém in western Portugal, about 110 miles north of Lisbon, were an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 witnesses. Among them were reporters from the New York Times and from O Século, Portugal’s most widely circulated and influential newspaper. Believers and unbelievers, converts and skeptics, simple farmers and world-renowned scientists and academics–hundreds of witnesses recounted what they’d seen that historic day:

Reporter Avelino de Almeida, writing for the pro-government, anti-clerical O Século, had been skeptical. Almeida had covered earlier apparitions with satire, mocking the three children who had proclaimed the events there at Fatima. This time, though, he witnessed the events firsthand and wrote:

“Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws — the sun ‘danced’ according to the typical expression of the people.”

Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, a noted lawyer from Lisbon and chairman of the Bar Association, reporting in the newspaper Ordem, wrote:

“The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceedingly swift and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat.”

A reporter for the Lisbon newspaper O Dia wrote:

“…The silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds… The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands… people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they.”

Dr. Almeida Garrett, professor of natural sciences at the University of Coimbra, was present and was frightened by the spinning sun. Afterward, he wrote:

“The sun’s disc did not remain immobile. This was not the sparkling of a heavenly body, for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl, when suddenly a clamor was heard from all the people. The sun, whirling, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible.”

Dr. Manuel Formigão, a priest and professor at the seminary at Santarém, had attended an earlier apparition in September, and had questioned the three children on several occasions. Father Formigão wrote:

“As if like a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendor. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent firewheel that could be imagined, taking on all the colors of the rainbow and sending forth multicolored flashes of light, producing the most astounding effect. This sublime and incomparable spectacle, which was repeated three distinct times, lasted for about ten minutes. The immense multitude, overcome by the evidence of such a tremendous prodigy, threw themselves on their knees.”

Rev. Joaquim Lourenço, a Portuguese priest who had been only a child at the time of the event, watched from a distance of eleven miles, in the town of Alburitel. Writing later about his boyhood experience, he said:

“I feel incapable of describing what I saw. I looked fixedly at the sun, which seemed pale and did not hurt my eyes. Looking like a ball of snow, revolving on itself, it suddenly seemed to come down in a zig-zag, menacing the earth. Terrified, I ran and hid myself among the people, who were weeping and expecting the end of the world at any moment.”

“On that day of October 13, 1917, without remembering the predictions of the children, I was enchanted by a remarkable spectacle in the sky of a kind I had never seen before. I saw it from this veranda…”

Even Pope Benedict XV, walking hundreds of miles away in the Vatican Gardens, is reported to have seen the sun quivering in the sky.

* * * * *

So what really happened on that day, 100 years ago?

Skeptics have attempted to explain away the phenomenon. At the Catholic University of Louvain, physics professor Auguste Meessen points out that looking directly at the sun can cause phosphene visual artifacts and temporary partial blindness. Meessen believes that retinal after-images produced after brief periods of sun gazing were the cause of the “dancing” effects, and the apparent changes in color were caused by caused by the bleaching of photosensitive retinal cells. Professor Meessen, however, hedges his own bet. “It is impossible,” he writes,

“…to provide any direct evidence for or against the supernatural origin of apparitions…. [t]here may be some exceptions, but in general, the seers are honestly experiencing what they report.”

Steuart Campbell, writing for the edition of Journal of Meteorology, postulated in 1989 that a cloud of stratospheric dust changed the appearance of the sun on that day, making it easy to look at. The effect, he conjectured, was that the sun only appeared to be yellow, blue, and violet, and to spin.

Another theory is a mass hallucination stimulated by the religious fervor of the crowd.

But one possibility–indeed, the most plausible–is that the Lady, the Virgin Mary, did indeed appear to three children in a grotto near Fatima between May and September 1917. Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners and for the conversion of Russia. She did, indeed, tell them that there would be a miracle on October 17 of that year, and that as a result, many people would come to believe.

Saint John Paul II believed in the miracle of Fatima. He believed that the assassination attempt against him in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, was a fulfillment of the third secret; and he placed the bullet, which had been removed from his body by surgeons, into the crown of the official statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

The Catholic Church has declared the apparitions at Fatima “worthy of belief.” As with all private revelations, it is not required that Catholics believe in the apparition; however, the messages of Fatima are generally regarded as relevant, even in the present day.

Looking for a last-minute theater experience? Tonight only, May 2, Sight and Sound Theatres are presenting the hit musical Jonah: On Stage in theaters across America.

More than a million people have enjoyed Jonah: On Stage; and now, the ambitious production comes to the big screen in more than 600 theaters for one exciting presentation. The stage show, with its humor and music and special effects and colorful costuming, has been filmed before a live audience and is coming to a theater near you!

You remember the Bible story: When God calls for Jonah to offer mercy and forgiveness to the people of Nineveh, Jonah runs straight… in the opposite direction. But as Jonah discovers on his long journey, God is always willing to offer anyone a second chance.

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/jonah-on-stage-tonight-only-a-one-night-cinematic-event-to-remember/feed/0The Shroud of Turin: Powerful Witness to the Resurrectionhttp://seasonsofgrace.net/the-shroud-of-turin-powerful-witness-to-the-resurrection/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/the-shroud-of-turin-powerful-witness-to-the-resurrection/#commentsWed, 12 Apr 2017 18:47:26 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3446“If the image on the Shroud of Turin were thought to be of a Pharaoh, an emperor, an ancient warrior, or, indeed, just about anybody from antiquity, then the world of science and academia would be obsessed with unlocking its secrets.”

That’s the charge leveled by acclaimed British film producer and director David Windsor Rolfe. Since 1978, Rolfe has produced four films on the Shroud – helping to bring the historical, medical and archeological research on this priceless relic to the attention of the faithful and the general public.

Now all four Shroud of Turin films are available in an English language, high-definition DVD set from Ignatius Press. The collection includes:

The Silent Witness, British Academy Award-winning film from 1978;

Shroud of Turin, a remarkable film commissioned by the BBC in 2008;

Shroud, the Official Film of the 2010 Exposition of the Shroud in Turin; and

A Grave Injustice, which explains how a recent carbon dating test of the Shroud that purportedly shows it to be a medieval fake was seriously flawed, and that a more accurate test has yet to be made.

Included in the two-DVD set is a compilation of Special Features which further explain the information available on the Shroud of Turin, the making of the films, and behind the scenes interviews and information. And there is a small collector’s booklet, The Holy Shroud: An Icon of Love, which draws together excerpted selections from five homilies and addresses of Pope Benedict XVI, made during his Pastoral Visit to Turin on May 2, 2010.

* * * * *

It was my privilege to see the Shroud of Turin during its ten-week public exposition in the Jubilee Year 2000. Archbishop Severino Poletto opened the exhibition on August 22, 2000. Our family had been planning a driving trip through Europe; and when the exhibit was announced, we revised our itinerary to stop at the Turin Cathedral.

Following a long line of devoted pilgrims, we stopped in prayerful silence before the Shroud, displayed on the Cathedral wall in a carefully guarded glass showcase. But while the atmosphere was prayerful, there was nothing in the archdiocese’s display to explain what I was seeing. I was grateful that only months earlier, I had toured a traveling exhibition on the Shroud. That exhibit from the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado explained the veracity of claims that it had, indeed, once wrapped the still body of the crucified Christ. The radiocarbon dating, the pollen testing, the pattern of the scourging, the blood type, and many other factors lend credence to the claims that this was Christ’s burial cloth.

The Shroud of Turin is only rarely displayed for the public. Since our family’s visit in 2000, it has been shown only twice: in 2010 and again in 2015. Perhaps you will not have an opportunity to see the Shroud personally; but as we approach those most sacred days when we remember Christ’s entombment, Ignatius Press’ just-released DVD collection offers a powerful opportunity for learning and reflection.

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/the-shroud-of-turin-powerful-witness-to-the-resurrection/feed/1Coming Into the Home Stretch: What Is Holy Week?http://seasonsofgrace.net/coming-into-the-home-stretch-what-is-holy-week/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/coming-into-the-home-stretch-what-is-holy-week/#respondMon, 10 Apr 2017 14:11:50 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3440Yesterday, Palm Sunday, we welcomed Jesus, waving palm fronds in a reenactment of Christ’s jubilant entrance into Jerusalem. This week will be full of reenactments from Jesus’ last week on earth, culminating with a jubilant celebration on Easter.

Holy Week—the week from Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday—is a sacred time on the Catholic calendar, for it is the period when we commemorate the last week of Jesus’ life on this earth. These are the days leading up to the great Easter Feast. The Lenten season of sacrifice and self-denial is about to come to an end, but this coming week is extremely important for all Christians. The greatest focus of the week is the Passion (suffering) and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the events that led up to it.

As early as the fourth century, the Church celebrated this “Great Week” with profound sanctity. It begins with Palm Sunday, which marks Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, with a procession of palms. At the Palm Sunday liturgy, the Passion narrative is read in its entirety.

Especially important for Catholics is the Easter Triduum, the three days just before Easter.

On Holy Thursday, we re-enact the Lord’s Last Supper, which He shared with His apostles on the night He was betrayed and arrested. At the Mass, the priest will wash the feet of twelve men, just as Jesus did. Also on this night, priests all over the world will renew their sacred vows. This is because at the Last Supper, Jesus not only instituted the Mass (Eucharist) but also the ministerial priesthood.

On Good Friday, the day of the Crucifixion and death of our Lord, Catholics participate in the veneration of the Cross. A service is held at three o’clock in the afternoon (the hour He is believed to have died) and another service is held later in the evening. We go forward and kiss Jesus’ feet on the Cross in order to show honor and respect for Christ’s sacrifice for our sake. There is no Mass, hence no consecration of the Eucharist on this day; and the Communion we receive will have been reserved in the tabernacle from the previous day.

On Holy Saturday, we keep watch expectantly for the rising of Our Savior. This was the day He went down into the netherworld in order to bring back up with Him into heaven those who had died before His coming. Up to this time, the gates to heaven were closed and no one could go there because of the original sin of Adam. Jesus changed that: By paying the price for our sins on the Cross, He gained for us our eternal salvation, and heaven was opened once more.

Also on this night, persons who have spent months of preparation will be received through Baptism and Confirmation into the Catholic Church for the first time. It is a joyous occasion.

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/coming-into-the-home-stretch-what-is-holy-week/feed/0Special Storybooks for Chubby Little Hands and Curious Little Mindshttp://seasonsofgrace.net/special-storybooks-for-chubby-little-hands-and-curious-little-minds/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/special-storybooks-for-chubby-little-hands-and-curious-little-minds/#respondSat, 08 Apr 2017 19:35:06 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3429With Easter just around the corner, I’d guess there are parents out there still thinking about what should accompany that Easter basket for a favorite toddler. Do I have ideas for you!!

From Silver Dolphin publishers, Noah’s Ark is a 32-page, full-color picture and storybook written by Timothy Knapman and illustrated by Sean Sims. But that’s not all! The book is accompanied by a fold-out, build-it-yourself model of the Ark complete with press-out goats, steer, crocodiles, monkeys, pandas, zebras, kangaroos, and Noah’s family — 84 press-out model pieces in all.

After you read the story together with your child, you can help to assemble the Ark and then sit back and let the creativity begin. It’s a great way to learn a beloved Bible story! My only caution is that the set may not be appropriate for very young children, because both the Ark and the animals are made of a fairly thin cardboard which may not last long in little hands.

Another wonderful story! This version of Beauty and the Beast is chockful of strong values for children. Beauty’s father was “poor but hardworking.” Beauty kept her promise and returned to the castle, even though she worried about her father. And while she visited there with the Beast, what did they do? They danced, of course, but they also spent a lot of time in the library, reading books.

Once you finish reading the story, as the Prince and the Princess live happily ever after, there’s a beautiful castle to be built — complete with a ballroom, gargoyles, Beauty’s bedroom and, across the castle, Beast’s bedroom. Oh, the fun you can have!

One more build-it-and-play adventure for children! All Aboard the Pirate Ship is not a scary, bad-guy kind of story you might expect from pirates. In this book, the pirates live by a wholesome motto: “Treasure first and friends forever!” Young Tommy Montgomery first encounters the pirates with their leader, Captain Cutlass, buying (not stealing) supplies for their adventure.

Welcomed aboard by the crew of the Pirate’s Revenge, Tommy learns how to hoist the sails, how to defend the ship from sea monsters, how to read a map and walk the plank, using it as a diving board. He even learns how to talk like a pirate. Arrrrrr! When Tommy swings down the ropes and knocks their competitor, Peg-Leg Pete, into the sea, Pete is happily rescued by his crew.

And then the work begins: Build the ship’s wheel, add paper sails, an anchor, ladder, cannons, barrels, and the ship’s crew, as well as the ship’s figurehead, and let the sea adventures commence!

Same warning as before: The models are so cute! But small children will need help with assembly, and the lightweight cardboard models will likely not survive hard play.

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/special-storybooks-for-chubby-little-hands-and-curious-little-minds/feed/0Why My Co-workers Needed the Billy Graham Rulehttp://seasonsofgrace.net/why-my-co-workers-needed-the-billy-graham-rule/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/why-my-co-workers-needed-the-billy-graham-rule/#respondTue, 04 Apr 2017 08:53:54 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3420The liberal media has been all a-twitter this week at the news that Vice President Mike Pence will not dine alone with a woman except for his wife. The same outlets that were happy to look the other way when President Clinton got up-close-and-personal with a young White House intern in the Oval Office are now screaming, “Unfair!” at the revelation that Mike Pence loves and respects his wife so much that he wants to safeguard his marriage, avoiding temptation and scandal by imposing a rule restricting his relationships with women. He employs what has come to be called the “Billy Graham Rule” — refusing to have lunch or dinner alone with a woman other than Karen Pence.

Jia Tolentino, writing in the New Yorker, worried that such conservative practices would keep women from power. She said,

“But it’s one thing to avoid a particular situation involving a particular woman who makes you feel a certain way; it’s another entirely to avoid all women as a group and as a rule because of the abstract possibility of sexual temptation.”

If women are framed as temptresses, Tolentino believes, their only power is sex.

Glennon Doyle Melton expresses the same viewpoint in Time magazine. Doyle Melton — who describes herself as “a Christian, a feminist, and a woman currently planning my wedding to another woman” — believes that Mike Pence’s marriage rule holds women back. “If it feels,” she writes,

“…like we are going back in time, perhaps it’s because rules like Pence’s invite us back to 18th century political ideology — and one of the oldest tricks in the patriarchal playbook — of separate spheres. Separate spheres based on purported natural makeup and the will of God, that a man’s place is in the public sphere (politics, commerce, the economy and law) while a woman’s God-ordained role is in the private sphere (housekeeping, child-rearing and domestic duties). This ideology historically justified women’s legal status as dependents until marriage, and stripped women of their legal existence — economic and property rights — after marriage.”

ARE THESE WRITERS CORRECT, that Pence’s protective attitude toward his marriage somehow impedes women’s ability to exert influence on and command respect in the world of business like their male counterparts?

That might be true, if the only way to get things done in the world was to engage in private tête-à-têtes. But there’s more than one way to accomplish a goal; and Mike Pence can work effectively employing a repertoire of formal business meetings, telephone conversations, office meetings with the door open, and private dinners for three or four persons.

My Personal Experience in a Culture of Adultery and Deceit

Amidst the flurry of commentary about male-female relationships in the workplace, I couldn’t help but remember my own experience years ago, as a young female employee at a Detroit-area nonprofit association. (The organization shall remain nameless because I don’t want to expose others to undue criticism, and because my former employer could be any of hundreds of similar nonprofit and for-profit organizations in Michigan, where I worked, or across the nation.)

I was hired as an executive secretary; but my boss believed I could bring my talent to bear in another role, and I was eventually promoted to a mid-range staff position. I now had my own office, and I was now included with five or six other staff members who traveled to an annual corporate conference.

My first business trip was to New York City, and as a young 20-something, I felt unprepared to take advantage of the opportunity I’d been given. I felt shy and inept; but besides my reticence at the dinner meeting, there was something else: To my shock and dismay, I learned that most of my co-workers, the “happily married” men and women with whom I’d shared coffee and donuts and laughter back in the office, whose family portraits smiled at me from their credenzas, had “girlfriends” or “boyfriends” out in the world. Traveling on business without their spouses, they slipped easily into sexual relationships with convenient partners from other states.

It seemed I was the last to know that this was part of the corporate culture. When I passed one department head I knew standing in the hotel hallway with a bottle of wine, knocking on the door of an attractive woman from Pennsylvania, he seemed unapologetic at having been caught on the threshold of adultery.

A Climate of Professional Excellence in Mike Pence’s Office

Mary Vought worked for Mike Pence when he served in Congress; and she insists that Pence’s personal decision to not dine alone with female staffers was never a hindrance to her ability to do her job well, and never kept her from reaping the rewards of her work. “In fact,” she wrote in the New York Post,

“…I excelled at my job because of the work environment created from the top down, and my personal determination to succeed.

I engaged in senior staff meetings and strategy sessions side by side with the congressman and my colleagues, and I never felt sidelined because of my gender. My proposals and suggestions were always valued as equal with those of my male counterparts.

As time went on, I was able to prove that I could handle increased responsibilities, and so more responsibilities were provided to me. My gender never factored into how my work was evaluated, or whether my responsibilities were expanded. In fact, the congressman would sometimes send me to GOP leadership communication meetings to represent his voice — and more often than not, I was the only woman in the room.

My work product determined my success — not private dinners with the congressman. When looking back on my time in the office of the man who is now vice president, I don’t consider it to be a period of missed opportunities.

The fact of the matter is, it’s not as though then-Congressman Pence was out having private dinners with male staffers and I was excluded. He wasn’t having private dinners much at all.”

Washington, according to Vought, will swallow your soul if you let it. It’s a place where many moral compasses go to die.

In the years since my experience at that New York conference, I’ve built my own career inside a protective Catholic bubble and have been blissfully unaware of the sexual proclivities of the secular world. Still, I have no reason to doubt that by now, infidelity has become even more common in the workplace.

That Mike Pence chooses to live by a higher standard — to protect his marriage and his reputation by conducting business in an open environment — is to be commended, not condemned.

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/why-my-co-workers-needed-the-billy-graham-rule/feed/0Charlie Daniels: “How About Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn?”http://seasonsofgrace.net/charlie-daniels-how-about-sanctuary-cities-for-the-unborn/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/charlie-daniels-how-about-sanctuary-cities-for-the-unborn/#respondFri, 31 Mar 2017 15:43:12 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3414Charlie Daniels, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter best known for his contributions to country, bluegrass and Southern rock, has made news this week with a suggestion posted on his Twitter account: Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.

Daniels, whose many awards include his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, has been outspoken on many political issues. His hit song “In America” is a reaction to the 1979-81 Iran Hostage Crisis and the troubled economic conditions at the time. His 2003 book “Ain’t No Rag: Freedom, Family and the Flag” included an Open Letter to the Hollywood Bunch,” in support of President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy. In 2009, he openly criticized the Obama Administration for “changing the name of the War on Terror to the ‘Overseas Contingency Operation’ and referring to terrorism as ‘man-caused disasters'”. He is a supporter of the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Most recently, in a tweet on March 31, he suggested sanctuary cities where people who don’t pay their taxes can go to avoid the IRS.

Charlie Daniels’ opposition to abortion is most likely a reflection of his deep faith. His Twitter page is peppered with Scriptures and prayers, interspersed with his political posts and concert promotions. The songs he’s written have often mentioned the Bible and church, and he’s recorded many Gospel favorites including “I Saw the Light” and “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” as well as “I’ll Fly Away” and “Nothing But the Blood.” He publicly gives glory to God for the opportunities and success he’s found along the way.

In a 2014 interview with Tiffany Jothen published on the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade, Daniels talks about his priorities: “My priorities,” he says, “are God, family, country and work. I don’t always succeed, but I try to keep those as my most important things in my life.”

Daniels remembers when prayer was taken out of schools decades ago and said “if it had stopped right there, that would’ve been bad enough.” But now, he continued, he has seen so many examples of people removing God from their lives that he fears where the nation is headed.

“If America don’t get God back into our daily lives and into our politics and into everything we do, we ain’t gonna make it. We’ve gone too far in the other direction,” he said. “We’ve tried everything else. We’ve tried every kind of sensual satisfaction. … We’ve tried following people who we thought had the answer.” But in the end, he said, “God is the only real help we’ve got.”

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/charlie-daniels-how-about-sanctuary-cities-for-the-unborn/feed/0AIN’T I A WOMAN? Sojourner Truth, and the Liberation of America’s Smallest Womenhttp://seasonsofgrace.net/aint-i-a-woman-sojourner-truth-and-the-liberation-of-americas-smallest-women/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/aint-i-a-woman-sojourner-truth-and-the-liberation-of-americas-smallest-women/#respondWed, 08 Mar 2017 20:00:22 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3407On March 8, 2011, feminists observed the centenary of International Women’s Day—a day when we remember the struggles of women in the fight against gender discrimination, and celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

I would like to dedicate this post to the smallest of women: those who have not yet seen the light of day, but for whom Jesus also died.

These smallest women, still unborn, have been generated in the heart of God, and have been a part of His perfect plan from the moment of creation.

* * * * *

In the early 1960s, when the National Organization of Women was just gathering steam and abortion was still illegal in America, being a feminist was a good thing.

Those were the years when discrimination was real and often severe. Letter carriers were called “mailmen,” police officers were “policemen,” because those government positions were not available to women. Employment policies decreed that women could not hold certain management-level positions; that women would train men, who would then become their bosses, but that women could not be considered for advancement; that pregnant women would be required to resign by the seventh month of gestation. Many women did not drive automobiles. Few worked outside the home.

But change was coming. Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. magazine, popularized the witticism “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” New York’s Bella Abzug led the way for women into the halls of Congress and co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus. “Equal pay for equal work” became the mantra of the1960s gender feminists. Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Eleanor Smeal and other prominent feminists in the ‘60s and early ‘70s decried the fact that a woman was only considered “valuable” to the extent that she was wanted by a man—either her father or her husband.

“No,” the feminists rightly exclaimed, “EVERY woman has an inherent dignity, regardless of her marital status.” The innate value of all women was a battle cry for the women’s movement at its offset. How ironic, then—how unthinkable—that only a few years later they should abandon that line of reasoning for the convenience of the “women’s rights” movement, hitching their wagon to “a woman’s right to choose.”

For just as a woman is invaluable because she has been created by God, so, too, is the unborn child—the fetus or, before that, the embryo—precious, because God has crafted it in His likeness, has imbued it with life, has granted it a dignity which remains, regardless whether or not it was “chosen” and is desired by its mother.

* * * * *

One of the classic defenses of the value of the human person in America is a speech delivered in 1851 by a former slave, Sojourner Truth. She was speaking at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, as women were clamoring for equal rights. In honor of Sojourner Truth, and of all persons whom God has created, I reprint her remarks in their entirety.

AIN’T I A WOMAN?

By Sojourner Truth

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?

Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman?

I have borne thirteen children, and seen most sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.

This post originally appeared at Patheos.

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/aint-i-a-woman-sojourner-truth-and-the-liberation-of-americas-smallest-women/feed/0NASA Astronauts’ Christmas Eve Message from Spacehttp://seasonsofgrace.net/nasa-astronautsand-8217-christmas-eve-message-from-space/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/nasa-astronautsand-8217-christmas-eve-message-from-space/#commentsSat, 25 Feb 2017 16:55:45 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3387On Dec. 24, 1968, our nation was in strife. The war in Vietnam had divided and demoralized the nation; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated; and the Zodiac Killer was on the loose.

A nation in need of healing listened as the Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read the creation story from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast.

Astronaut Frank Borman, aboard the Apollo spacecraft, closed with a greeting to Americans:

“…And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you on the good earth.”

]]>http://seasonsofgrace.net/nasa-astronautsand-8217-christmas-eve-message-from-space/feed/5Witches Plan to Cast a Spell on President Trump Tonighthttp://seasonsofgrace.net/witches-plan-to-cast-a-spell-on-president-trump-tonight/
http://seasonsofgrace.net/witches-plan-to-cast-a-spell-on-president-trump-tonight/#respondFri, 24 Feb 2017 23:53:24 +0000http://seasonsofgrace.net/?p=3381Tonight’s the night: Witches across America and around the world are planning to cast a spell on President Donald Trump and his supporters — weakening his power and, they hope, eventually removing him from office. The occultists hope, by their “binding spell” at midnight, to prevent the President from doing harm.

Their weapons? Common household items including

Unflattering photo of Trump (small)

Tower tarot card (from any deck)

Tiny stub of an orange candle

Pin or small nail (to inscribe candle)

White candle (any size), representing the element of Fire

Small bowl of water, representing elemental Water

Small bowl of salt, representing elemental Earth

Feather (any), representing the element of Air

Matches or lighter

Ashtray or dish of sand

Organizers also list optional items such as a piece of pyrite (fool’s gold), sulfur, black thread and a baby carrot (as a substitute for the orange candle stub).

Some Trump supporters have taken the threat of the witches seriously, and have organized a prayer campaign which will go on at the same time that the occultists are holding their sessions.

Myself, I’ll be sleeping peacefully in the knowledge that God is in control — that He is mightier and more powerful than Satan and his evil spirits, and that the conjurers are wasting their time.

What does the Bible have to say about black magic, of the type that the witches plan for Friday night, February 24?

Looking to Scriptures, it’s easy to find condemnation for the practice of witchcraft. In Deuteronomy 18:10-12, occult activity is specifically proscribed:

“Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortuneteller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord.”

And in the New Testament, St. Paul rebukes Elymas, the magician, calling him “son of Satan and enemy of all that is right” (Galatians 5:19). And St. Peter rebuked Simon Magus, a magician who sought to make himself more powerful by buying the powers of the Holy Spirit:

Now a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great.All of them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.”And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. (Acts 8:9-11)

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,saying, “Give me also this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money! 21 You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God.Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the chains of wickedness” (Acts 8:18-23).

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus declared,

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”